Op-Ed: Darren Sutherland's promoter Frank Maloney to quit boxing

London
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After seeing his name dragged through the mud at the inquest into hot prospect Darren Sutherland, manager and promoter Frank Maloney says he is quitting the fight game.

Darren Sutherland won the bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics for Ireland in the middleweight division, and moving to Bromley, turned pro with Frank Maloney winning his first four paid fights. Then, in September 2009, for some inexplicable reason, he hanged himself. He was apparently a man without inner demons not to mention a glittering well paid career ahead of him.

An inquest at Croydon Coroner's Court has now returned an open verdict; as might be expected even without this verdict, there has been considerable and in places lurid speculation about what drove him to it. From at least one quarter it has been more or less claimed that Frank Maloney as good as knotted the noose around Sutherland's neck, which is ironic indeed because he was one of the people who found the body, and doing so literally gave him a heart attack.

This week, a pugnacious looking Mr Maloney graces the front page of the Bromley edition of the News Shopper, but in spite of the pose, the fight has all been knocked out of him. He said that when his existing commitments end in 2015, he will quit the sport.

Last year, former heavyweight Gary Mason was tragically killed in a road accident. He too had been promoted by Maloney.

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